


I will learn to love the shears

by OctoberDays



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/M, Future Fic, Gen, Keyleth-centric (Critical Role), Post-Campaign 1 (Critical Role), Post-Canon, Post-Vecna Arc (Critical Role), baby's first fic, honestly just post-critical role in general, i get very prosey and weird but that is okay, nothing is explicitly described tho except feelings, sad times are now, the major character death is everyone because this is 2000 years later and the point of the fic, wherin i become very sad about keyleth and proceed to make myself cry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-12-14 06:36:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21011369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OctoberDays/pseuds/OctoberDays
Summary: Keyleth of the Air Ashari lives to a very, very old age, but as all natural things do, she does die eventually. This is what happens the day the Voice of the Tempest leaves the material plane one last time.Title from "The Gardener" by Sarah Sparks





	I will learn to love the shears

Keyleth lives for a very long time, but she is not immortal, and one day she dies. 

In two thousand years, the world has become unrecognizable. The Ashari hold a different place in society than they did so long ago, and Keyleth leads her people through wars and innovations and peace and conflicts as if she was born for it. At the point where the people of Exandria are exploring space, Keyleth is part fairytale, part benevolent ruler, part kindly neighbor. She does not resemble the Keyleth of Vox Machina, except she does, because despite the graying of her hair and the weakening of her joints, Keyleth is still Keyleth, full of love and light for the world, no matter how distant she might be from it. 

The day she dies, Keyleth- the Voice of the Tempest, the Leader of the Ashari, the druid of Vox Machina- is around many, many people. 

The first are her children, the ones (no matter how young or old they actually are, for they are all children to her) she cares for and who care for her. A few of them are her actual descendants, including one who will go on her Aramente soon. Keyleth gives her children a hug and a kiss on the head, because she knows that this day will be her last. 

The second, after she convinces her children to help her outside, is simply nature. There is the grass, and the flowers and herbs she planted in this garden long ago, and the Sun Tree, the only other one who's been with her throughout her life, all the way on the other side of the world. She sits in the dirt, feeling at once at home and so far away from it, and when her children find her again, she is crying softly, out of sadness and joy of the wonder she has seen. 

The third group of people she is around are her family's family- a group of gnomes of varying ages, a young Goliath girl that looks like Grog if you had known his face like your own, the De Rolo children (of Vex and Percy, yes, but also of Cassandra, for she finds joy this way as well), Tary's descendants, and then even the children of people she met after her family had passed, people who only knew Vox Machina as a story and an inspiration, not a group of fuck-ups looking to make a change in the world. Keyleth looks at every single person around her, the ones who she cares for, and she is so incredibly happy. 

And then she dies. 

And then she goes home. 

The fourth group of people include too many siblings and loves and soulmates to count, but by the gods does Keyleth love them all. There are her brothers, the ones who lent a shoulder to cry on and a way to find peace in the madness of almost-immortality and a good joke when she needed it. There are her sisters, who helped her become the woman she is, the woman she wanted to be, and Keyleth loves them all so much, and she tells them so. They have been waiting for her for so, so long, and finally, she is home with them. 

And then, when her family steps away, Keyleth of the Air Ashari, Voice of the Tempest, Kiki, sister and lover and queen and mother and grandmother, finally is reunited with her Vax'ildan, and she is complete. Two thousand years of waiting could not prepare her for the joy that she felt when she was finally able to feel him in her arms and know that he will never go far from her again. 

"I love you, Keyleth of the Air Ashari," he says, for the second time. 

"Don't you ever walk away from me again," she says, and he never does.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you kindly for reading my very short fic, I hope I didn't make you cry too much. Death is painful, and certainly sad, but in this fantasy world where the afterlife is for-sure a thing, death brings a little bit of hope, too. I hope today is kind to you.  
If you would like to yell about critical role at/with me, my tumblr is caedogeist-rights. Comments, kudos, and all that business is much appreciated. -Kye


End file.
